What happens when you pour water over lava? You get steam. I think when Q-Games’ Pixeljunk Shooter came out for the PS3 in 2009, where the player manipulates the levels using molten rock, water, and a magnetic fluid that I’m going to call “Polly”, they were dropping a hint that it would eventually end-up on Steam. I told no-one of this supposition, but now I wish I had. The gloopy game of fluid dynamics is landing on the PC in November, and I would have looked amazing.
I remember seeing it back when it was first announced and cursing at the exclusivity. It’s one thing to be exclusive for technical reasons, but quite another to be that way just because. The PC could easily handle the glorpy challenges that the 2D puzzle shooter has. I wanted to slosh and spill with friends as we attempted to rescue the spelunking scientists from their predicaments. You can watch that first trailer below and know that come November 11th, you’ll be able to do just that.

Here’s an interesting thing that I keep meaning to note: It’s coming to PC, Mac, and Linux, and I’m seeing a lot of games making a point of their Mac and Linux conversions. Are conversions getting easier, has Valve suggested that they might all want to plan ahead?

Nope, except for I think two “run from the lava” levels it’s all at your own pace. Just flying around a little, playing with the fluids, trying to find the hidden diamonds. I absolutely love it and its leisurely pace.

I didn’t really like the sequel though. The environments are much more hostile, with poisonous walls and darkness and what have you harshing the buzz.

From what I understand, conversions are getting much easier. Valve hired Ryan Gordon (Icculus) and Sam Latinga to seriously work on SDL, a platform agnostic tool. They released 2.0 in July. Then there’s Unity, which makes things much easier in its own right.

Finally there’s the hardware itself, which can just brute force almost any problem a non-AAA game can have. Wine wrappers might cause a performance hit, but who cares in an era when five year old PCs can play almost everything on the market and PCs will surpass the new consoles at a price/performance ratio within a year or two of release?

On the other hand, Valve has not exactly made its linux plans a secret.

As I’ve said in another thread: this was the best indie-game of 2009. Regardless of platform.

And make no mistake: this isn’t a SHMUP. It’s not even a twin stick-shooter, even though it controls like one.
It’s a physics-puzzler with shooting-elements. And shooting elements. The second one is more of a shooter, which is a shame.

Yeah, there’s a difference between games where the developer had a publishing contract (like a lot of the XBLA games that eventually migrate) and games that Sony outright owns (Journey, Flower, and the rest in your last paragraph).

The worst part is that now that the PS3 is being retired so the exclusivity will do no more good to Sony, and the devs will only be able to profit from people being way late to the console party (of which I believe there are lots, frankly).